Ordinals

Ordinals are the project aiming to bring NFTs into the Bitcoin ecosystem. The first project, Counterparty, first introduced non-fungible tokens to Bitcoin with the Rare Pepes collection in 2014, with Stacks following in 2017. However, the Ordinals project is different because the assets, including JPEGs and even video games, are inscribed directly on satoshis on the Bitcoin blockchain without needing a sidechain or additional token. The Ordinals project has consumed the Bitcoin community and sparked new debates and questions about the ultimate purpose of the Bitcoin network. For some, Ordinals opened Pandora's box of threats to the Bitcoin network, including malware attacks and skyrocketing transaction fees. Ordinals calls its NFTs “digital artifacts,” with others in the Bitcoin space calling the digital asset simply “inscriptions.” Ordinal inscriptions are possible thanks to a feature introduced by the Bitcoin Taproot upgrade in November 2021 that allows storing arbitrary data to a satoshi’s witness.